Word.ws English Dictionary

button-hole

button-hole is the alternative form of buttonhole.

Meaning of buttonhole

Noun

buttonhole (plural buttonholes)

  1. A hole through which a button is pushed to secure a garment or some part of one.
  2. (UK) A flower worn in a buttonhole for decoration.
    Synonyms:
    boutonniere
    1. (UK, attributive) So shaped that it can be worn on a buttonhole or it is similar to a buttonhole.
  3. A small slotlike cut or incision, made for example by an accident with the scalpel.
    • The usual cause of conjunctival buttonholes is penetration of the tissue by the tip of a sharp instrument […]2011, George L. Spaeth, Helen Danesh-Meyer, Ivan Goldberg, Ophthalmic Surgery: Principles and Practice E-Book, page 220
  4. The mouth, nose or eyes of a tiny appearance.
  5. (obsolete) The vagina, a coin slot.

See all 13 meanings of buttonhole

Forms of button-hole

Noun
pluralbutton-holes
Verb
third-person singular presentbutton-holes
present participlebutton-holing
past participlebutton-holed
pastbutton-holed

Questions about button-hole

What is button-hole the alternative form of?
Button-hole is the alternative form of buttonhole.

Words near button-hole in the dictionary

  1. button-bashers
  2. button-down
  3. button-downs
  4. button-fish
  5. button-fishes
  6. button-hole
  7. button-holes
  8. button-masher
  9. button-mashers
  10. button-mashing
  11. button-on

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: button-hole (page history and authors); buttonhole (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “button-hole.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/button-hole. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.